By Michaela Gordoni
Disney scrambles to reel in young men ages 13-28 with new content as the demographic continues to loose interest.
Disney is looking into new IP and hearing pitches about adventures, treasure hunts and seasonal movies, according to Variety. It’s recently struggled in its Marvel and Star Wars IP. And Disney’s live-action department has failed to bring any successful male-oriented content for a decade. It tried and failed to reboot INDIANA JONES in 2023, earning just $383 million worldwide on a budget of $300 million, not including marketing costs.
While the audience goal isn’t more urgent than any of its other goals, Gen Z males are a focus across all labels, a Disney insider said.
One route to success may be more video game-related movies. Due to COVID-19’s impact, Gen Z males are heavily game-focused, Screen Rant reported. Warner Bros.’ A MINECRAFT MOVIE had lots of Gen Z men who bought tickets, and it made almost $1 billion.
Related: CEO Bob Iger Says Disney Needs to ‘Entertain’ Not ‘Advance Any Kind of Agenda’
Disney bought a $1.5 billion equity stake in Fortnite, which will feature Disney characters. However, it does not have movie rights yet.
Disney has done well recently, with four of its movies grossing over $1 billion in the last 16 months. Its success is expected to continue into next year, despite that it doesn’t have Gen Z males wrapped around its finger.
CEO Bob Iger recently said, “We continue to be focused on creating new IP. Obviously, that’s of great value to us long-term. But we also know that the popularity of our older IP remains significant, and the opportunities to either produce sequels or convert what was previously animation to live action, like we’re doing with MOANA in 2026, it’s just a great opportunity for the company and supports our franchise.”
“So I wouldn’t say that we’ve got a priority one way or the other. Our priority is to put out great movies that ultimately resonate with consumers,” he said.
“The more we can find and develop original property, the better,” Iger continued. “Of course, we are developing original property under the 20th Century banner and under the Searchlight banner. And look, you could even argue that Marvel continues to mine its library of characters for original property.”
“Even though, for instance, there have been FANTASTIC FOUR movies before, we kind of consider the one we did an original property in many respects, because we’re introducing those characters to people who are not familiar with them at all,” he said.
Disney faced the same boy problem in the late ’90s. At the time, its solution was to make more adventure and action films. Thus came out TREASURE PLANET and ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE. Both movies underperformed, particularly TREASURE PLANET, which made only $109 million on a $140 million budget, Total Apex Entertainment reported.
As long as Disney knows its audience and remembers Walt Disney’s belief that there’s a kid in all of us, it can fix its Gen Z issue.
Read Next: Does Disney Care About Original Stories Any More?
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